In a conventional gasoline internal combustion engine, after the fuel/air mixture is compressed by the piston, a single heat-producing spark is fired by the spark-plug in order to ignite the air/fuel mixture thus causing gas expansion, which results in driving the piston during the power stroke. The burning of the fuel, which commences at the spark and spreads throughout the combustion chamber of the cylinder, is relatively slow and inefficient which results in unburned or only partially burned fuel remaining within the cylinder after each power stroke. This unburned fuel is consequently discharged along with the products of combustion during the exhaust portion of the cylinder cycle.
It is well known in the art to provide an internal combustion engine of the diesel type wherein the heat of compression of the air charge causes ignition of the fuel which is injected under high pressure to the cylinder at or near the beginning of the power stroke. This type of combustion and ignition system also results in unburned or partially-burned fuel remaining in the cylinder after each power stroke and, therefore, combustion is incomplete. This of course results in inefficiencies of the engine as well as undesirable pollutants being emitted into the atmosphere.
The emissions from automobile engines have been regulated for many years by the government and have posed a significant problem to automobile manufacturers. Many automobile manufacturers have attempted to control the emissions for internal combustion engines by using various devices including employing relatively expensive catalytic convertors and the like. These devices tend to decrease the overall efficiency of the automobile because of their load on the engine system. Furthermore, these devices are nowhere near 100% effective in removing all of the emissions generated by the internal combustion engine. Thus, a measurable amount of pollution is still being exposed to the environment.
In view of the above problems, it would be desirable to provide an internal combustion engine system that is an improvement over the above-mentioned conventional designs. Such an improvement should provide for rapid and complete combustion at high intensity throughout a part of, or all of, the power stroke as may be necessary in order to obtain substantially complete combustion at high mechanical work efficiency of an engine. Such a system should also substantially or completely eliminate all of the emissions caused by the internal combustion engine and, therefore, should eliminate the need for expensive complex exhaust systems that are presently being used with automobiles.